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ozoni

Happy first Thursday of 2017! Hope the first five days are treating you well.

Every New Year’s Day, I get excited because I get to eat ozoni, a Japanese mochi soup. It’s been a tradition for my entire life. My grandmother used to make it and then my auntie took over after she passed. My grandma used to say that we eat ozoni because it would bring us good luck for the new year. The mochi was what brought good luck and we would have to eat all the mochi that was in our bowl.

Everyone makes their ozoni differently. Some use a shrimp or fish base to make the dashi (or soup), some use chicken broth, like we do. Some add only veggies, some add meat, some add seafood. It’s very interesting to taste other people’s ozoni. I’ve tried two of my other aunties’ ozoni. They both were very different from the one I grew up eating.